L-Band InSAR Penetration Depth Experiment, North Slope Alaska

Abstract

Since the first spacecraft-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) mission NASA's SEASAT in 1978 radars have been flown in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) by other national space agencies including the Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, India Space Research Organization and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. Improvements in electronics, miniaturization and production have allowed for the deployment of SAR systems on aircraft for usage in agriculture, hazards assessment, land-use management and planning, meteorology, oceanography and surveillance. LEO SAR systems still provide a range of needful and timely information on large and small-scale weather conditions like those found across the Arctic where ground-base weather radars currently provide limited coverage. For investigators of solidearth deformation attention must be given to the atmosphere on Interferometric SAR (InSAR) by aircraft and spacecraft multi-pass operations. Because radar has the capability to penetrate earth materials at frequencies from the Pto X-band attention must be given to the frequency dependent penetration depth and volume scattering. This is the focus of our new research project: to test the penetration depth of L-band SAR/InSAR by aircraft and spacecraft systems at a test site in Arctic Alaska using multi-frequency analysis and progressive burial of radar mesh-reflectors at measured depths below tundra while monitoring environmental conditions. Knowledge of the L-band penetration depth on lowland Arctic tundra is necessary to constrain analysis of carbon mass balance and hazardous conditions arising from permafrost degradation and thaw, surface heave and subsidence and thermokarst formation at local and regional scales.

Application of Multi-Sensor Satellite Data for Exploration of Zn–Pb Sulfide Mineralization in the Franklinian Basin, North Greenland

“…Water represents in black color and ice as blue/gray hue with angular texture in the Fjords. Water bodies represent dark in radar images due to the fact that no returning radar signal could be detected in a receiving antenna from smooth surfaces [100,101]. In the PCA2 image of the Amundsen Land subset, the NW-SE-trending and E-W-trending lineaments (high potential trends for the CD mineralization) were more pronounced using a directional filter with NW-SE (135 • ) angle adjustment ( Figure 9B).…”

To Measure the Changing Relief of Arctic Rivers: A Synthetic Aperture RADAR Experiment in Alaska

“…This is the result where surface deformation change can be detected above the accuracy and precision of the methods. The control-monitoring site for the evaluation of this test of hypothesis is C1, a reflector-mesh sight on the tundra outside of the Sagavanirktok River floodplain south of Deadhorse [26]. The outcome of the experiment will enable us to evaluate and test a second hypothesis of L-frequency Coherence and Backscatter Strength (CBS, depending on HHHH, VVVV and HHVV polarization) on tundra.…”